West Indies won the toss and decided to bat against England
(ESPNcricinfo) West Indies opted to bat first in the opening one-day international at Old Trafford with the match trimmed to 42 overs per side due to a damp outfield.
It means Chris Gayle’s ODI career will resume with bat in hand as he makes his first appearance in the format since the 2015 World Cup. Shai Hope, the star of the Test series, will take the keeping gloves having not been part of the T20 squad while two spinners – Ashley Nurse and Devendra Bishoo – have been included.
England confirmed yesterday that Jonny Bairstow would open the batting. Chris Woakes and David Willey have been chosen ahead of Jake Ball and Tom Curran as part of the pace attack.
Having inspected at 1pm – half an hour after the scheduled start – the officials, Tim Robinson and Simon Fry, opted to look again at 2pm and better news emerged when they decided the match would start at 2.30pm. The main problem areas had been around the edge of the square where the covers would stop.
West Indies had been unhappy with conditions during the T20I at Chester-le-Street after rain towards the end of England’s which made the outfield very slippery. The T20 captain, Carlos Brathwaite, said the match had come close to being called off after Chadwick Walton, the wicketkeeper, had suffered a nasty slip behind the stumps.
England 1 Alex Hales, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 David Willey
West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Shai Hope (wk), 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Jason Mohammad, 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Jason Holder (capt), 8 Ashley Nurse, 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Jerome Taylor, 11 Keswick Williams
